CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: "I would say it's a very significant operation because it really shows how deep the support networks for the Islamic State in Germany still run. It is a financial network that openly collected funds to send to IS members in prison in camps in Syria to most likely, that's the assertion from the prosecutor, free them with that money from those camps so they can reintegrate into the terrorism structure."

"The reality probably lies somewhere in between, says Sofia Koller, a senior research analyst at the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit organisation in New York.
'It would be wrong to say they were all naive, but also wrong to say they all knew exactly what they were doing,' she told The National. ...
'In one case in court, a Yazidi woman gave a horrifying account. Then the defendant said something like: I’m sorry I called you a slave girl. But I didn’t really hear her say: I’m sorry about what happened to you and your people and how I contributed to that,' Ms Koller said."

"Hans-Jakob Schindler of the Berlin-based Counter Extremism Project told the Bundestag that the dearth of information about the financing of Islamist groups in Germany is partly due to 'legal gaps and hurdles, existing limitations on the powers of the security authorities, as well as a lack of transparency requirements' for mosques and Islamic associations. He said that the legislative proposals could lead to 'major improvements' in filling the knowledge gap (Erkenntnislücke) about the financing of Islamism in Germany."

CEP Senior Alexander Ritzmann writes: "This article assesses the alleged plot by the Reichsbürger group called Patriotic Union to overthrow the German government that was thwarted in December 2022. The article first outlines what is known about the plot. It then in turn examines the history, the ideology, the adherents, and the threat posed by the Reichsbürger."

"On this week’s edition of 'The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,' Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, says Germans are shocked and worried."

Dr. Schindler said: "This is absolutely not the norm. Because we have strict gun control laws, mass shootings—unless they're terrorism related—really don't happen in Germany."

CEP Senior Advisor Alexander Ritzmann and CEP Senior Research Analyst Sofia Koller write: "[Translation] Radicalisation, extremism and terrorism are neither purely domestic nor solely foreign policy challenges for the security of the Federal Republic of Germany. Over the past 20 years, dealing with Islamist extremism and terrorism has repeatedly dominated the security policy agendas of domestic and foreign policy. At the same time, well-known phenomena such as right-wing extremism and newer forms of conspiracy ideologies such as QAnon, COVD-19 deniers or Reich citizens have increased in relevance. All these extremist phenomena have a strong transnational dimension."

"'All of this, for a quite a few years, was fairly harmless,' said Hans-Jakob Schindler, a former German diplomat and a director at the Counter Extremism Project. 'They got fines and they harassed local authorities, but they weren’t planning large-scale violence. ... With Covid, this exploded. The right-wing extremists immediately realised that any type of severe societal crisis is something they can take advantage of.'"

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: "The 25 people that were arrested is not the end of the story. There are additional people that are under investigation and the number keeps growing. They all belong, at the core of it, to a movement that is called the Reichsbürger, which holds old neo-Nazi beliefs really prevalent since 1945 in Germany that the Deutsche Reich did not end with the end of the Second World War and the foundation of the Federal Republic, but continues and therefore all political institutions, on the local, state, and federal level are therefore inherently illegal."